Growing up in Christ

what is the Rapture

The institutional church is about to collapse and the entire world is about to change. For the first time in all of history the God of all creation is about to reveal Himself to the whole earth in a single event. The catching away of the bride of Christ. Who collectively as a body have been the restraining influence all over the earth, by their very presence. Not as some sort of super righteous or self righteous super men. But as yielded vessels who were made fit to be used by God for his purposes, as they submitted to His authority by obeying His word.

These are the only people who will be leaving. As they are the only ones whose prayer praise and worship along with a lifestyle of obedience enabled the Holy Spirit to restrain the forces of darkness through their physical presence in the earth. It was the power of the Holy Spirit coming out of the lives and the mouths of those who believed God. It did not come from us it came through us. After we are removed, the restraining power that came through us in the spiritual realm will be removed with us.

Both the willingness and the ability in the hearts and minds of men to do good comes only from God as a source, not from men. This goodness has been done in and through men by the Holy Spirit. Humanism has preached the false doctrine of both self sovereignty and the inherent goodness of men for centuries, causing the widespread and willful ignorance of this great sustaining work of the Holy Spirit. Denying it entirely. Man is not capable of directing himself on his own, he was never designed that way. He either yields to the Spirit of God or by default is run by the spirits controlled by the god of this world.

Satan outranks fallen man in this fallen world. Being fallen is what makes it his because at the fall of man it became his. That’s what the fall was, a fall from free and willing submission to God – to being controlled by the Devil. Whether people see that or not doesn’t even matter. Believing is spiritual not physical, and it is a choice that can only be done before you see it. When the very body of people the Spirit works through is completely removed from the earth, the true nature of men since the fall will be unrestrained.

What was formerly accessed by the Spirit since Christ came will now be accessed by Satan and those with him. Meaning Lucifer and the angels that fell with him, along with the demons under them will now have their way in the earth because they have their way in the hearts and minds of men. Not merely influencing as before, but controlling at a much higher level. Since they are not God they cannot alter order established by God, but they now have greater freedom to move within the same order, wherein they were formerly restrained.

Being the overcomers, the true ecclesia, the spotless bride – we will not have to endure this tribulation. Not because we think we are special, because Jesus said so. In one of the three well known eschatological chapters in the gospels that speaks solely about the tribulation and the times leading up to it. It’s all right there in black and white, and it was always open to anyone who wanted it enough. In Luke 21: 36 when Jesus said not to be weighed down with the anxiety and worries of the world, but to pray so that you would have the strength to escape what was coming – the strength He was talking about was not muscular strength, it was spiritual. He was talking about the strength of our Faith. He repeats this same promise of deliverance in Revelation 3:10 to the only church that was faithful out of the seven.

But keep watch on yourselves, or your hearts will become dulled by carousing, drunkenness and the worries of everyday living, and that Day will be sprung upon you suddenly like a trap! For it will close in on everyone, no matter where they live, throughout the whole world. Stay alert, always praying that you will have the strength to escape all the things that will happen and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man. – Luke 21:34-36 Complete Jewish Bible

Faith is an obedience. Romans begins and ends talking about the obedience of faith. The less you obey the Word the weaker your faith will be. Most who call themselves believers have done just the opposite of what Jesus said. They are full of the pressure worry and anxiety of this life, and they don’t pray praise or feed their faith at all. They don’t believe in the rapture because they don’t know the Word. So with their low level of belief and their weak faith they have earned the right to be tested in the tribulation. That’s what the tribulation is, a very painful test. Those who refused to suffer in this life by putting their flesh down and doing what God said instead of what they wanted, will now have to suffer through learning it the hard way.

There is no argument about there being a rapture, it is an event described clearly in multiple Scriptures. There are simply people who don’t know the Bible and people who don’t believe it. You will be able to explain it to anyone who is willing to believe the Bible, after you absorb what I am telling you here. If you want the truth to make it into your spirit you have to stay teachable. Which can only be done by putting on childlikeness and humility. We have to do it with all of God’s things, and the Bible says so. If you don’t do that you will reduce it to something intellectual, and you cannot receive the Spiritual things of God with your intellect. You can only receive them with your spirit. I did not say that, God did.

First we have to understand that about a third of the Bible is prophecy, and most of what Jesus spoke is prophecy. Which almost always has an immediate partial fulfillment, and a later complete fulfillment. Not knowing this one thing has caused many to shipwreck on the outer shoals of prophecy without ever making it to the island. To understand this catching away we will take a look at the few places in Scripture where Jesus talks about coming to get us. Which is not His second coming. At the second coming Jesus comes to take over the world with the Kingdom of God, setting foot on the Mount of Olives physically in Jerusalem. The whole world will know and every eye shall see Him.

The second coming has nothing to do with the rapture, they are two completely separate and different events. At the catching away Jesus comes in the clouds secretly in that only the bride will see Him, and only the bride will be gathered to Him. This is in the Bible. Every time He appeared after the resurrection whether to Paul or a group of people, He only revealed Himself to those He wanted to see Him. It’s nothing new. He did not show Himself to everybody or to the whole world. It doesn’t matter if anybody likes that, it only matters if you believe the Bible. Making the Word of God final authority is required for believers who want it to have any authority at all in their life. We may partially commit to almost everything, God does not do that with anything.

In the gospel of John while speaking prophecy about His going to prepare a place and coming back to get them, Jesus is not addressing a crowd. He speaks to a very small group of obedient faithful believers called disciples, who did everything that He said. Except for one of them of course, who betrayed Him. He said he would come to take them with him to be where He is. He did not say He was coming to be with them where they are. He also told them that they knew where He was going and they knew the way. Then spends the next couple of chapters telling them the way for anyone who wants to, to get where He is going. How to come and be with Him. The way and the how He spoke to them about was obedience.

Do not let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me. In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you. And when (if) I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And [to the place] where I am going, you know the way. – John 14:1-4 Amplified

So the first thing to get clear about this catching away is that it is a place. Jesus will be taking us somewhere and He says so. The next thing to see is that it includes a body. You have one now and you will have one then. It will be the actual body material you have now without the physical death from the curse. The same body but of a different kind, a new kind. The new one will be the same kind Jesus has, a spiritual body. You can walk thru the wall but I can shake your hand. You can eat some fish and will never get sick. It will be impossible for you to sweat and you cannot go to the restroom again, ever, for any reason. Hallelujah!

I’m telling you a mystery. Not all of us will die, but we will all be changed. It will happen in an instant, in a split second at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will come back to life. They will be changed so that they can live forever. This body that decays must be changed into a body that cannot decay. – 1 Corinthians 15:51-53a God’s Word

Finally the rapture is an event. It is a departure of saints in the air to meet Jesus in the air. The Bible says that. It is not Jesus setting foot onto the earth to set up The Kingdom. That does happen but it happens later. There are many other Scriptures describing that, which have nothing to do with these Scriptures. The marriage supper of the Lamb and the bride of Christ are in the Bible. It doesn’t matter that the word rapture is not in the Bible, the event is in the Bible. The word trinity is not there either, nor is demon, but everybody knows what they are. Besides, it is in the Latin version, just not the original Greek texts. From those we have translated it being gathered or catching away. Here is the event in Scripture.

I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. – 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 The Book

The catching away of the obedient ones also known as the rapture has not happened yet. But it is about to. If you don’t believe in it then I’m not speaking to you. This is for the Believers. If you are not Expecting then you will be sleeping when He comes. This is the very time Jesus described clearly as falling upon all men unexpectedly, catching them like a trap. Because they did not believe. Some have tied the passing of Billy Graham to the timing of the rapture. I believe this to be correct, but of course it is not relevant to Scripture. Staying is not a punishment – Leaving is a reward. There will be wrath and punishment going on, but not for those who now become the true Believers. It will be very difficult times, very hard for everyone. But it will also be the greatest Harvest of souls in history. Whether you stay or whether you go, make sure you are a part of what God is doing right now. Peace